


Long Lost Letters

by Norberts_Mom



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Mention of Death, Minor Character Death, Modern AU, Seasons of Everlark, Thanksgiving, everlark, found letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27927100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norberts_Mom/pseuds/Norberts_Mom
Summary: After their mother's tragic death, Katniss and Prim go home to clean up her home. They come across a stack of letters addressed to Katniss from someone she hadn't thought about in years. She thought he never wrote back.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen & Primrose Everdeen, Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 60
Collections: Seasons of Everlark— Fall 2020





	Long Lost Letters

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Seasons of Everlark, Autumn 2020. Based on the anonymous prompt: Going home a few weeks Before Thanksgiving. Due to a tragic death. Cleaning up their stuff. You find a stack of letters addressed to you. You thought he never wrote you back. So, you stopped writing him years ago now older have a family. Writing back to him is a long shot because it’s been so long, but you do it anyways… and wait.  
> Thanks for my beta, mega-aulover.

“You ready to do this?” Prim asks me as we walk through the door of our old family home.

“I guess,” I tell her as I look around. It feels so still. Everything is exactly as it was last time we were here over the summer, except mom’s not here. Coming back home without her here is surreal. The three of us shared a video call over the weekend to set our plans for Thanksgiving dinner coming up in a few weeks.

Two days later, I was at work when I got the call from the hospital that mom had collapsed; a stroke, the doctor told me. I had to call Prim and tell her that our mom was gone.

Now that the funeral’s over, Prim and I have to decide what to do with mom’s stuff. There’s no mortgage. Dad made sure of that. His life insurance was set up to pay it off when he passed all those years ago. Now they are both gone. Prim and I both relocated after college, so neither of us really wants the house. It’s not really home any more without them in it. I guess we’ll get it ready for a new family to call home.

Our husbands are both out with the kids. They’ll come back with some packing boxes to help us pack it all up later.

“Bedroom or kitchen first?” Prim asks.

“Bedroom,” I tell her. The kitchen was where we would spend all our time together during family visits. Too many memories there right now.

We head into mom’s room and I have to stop and take a breath. The scent of mom’s gardenia perfume lingers there and really hits me. It reminds me of the hugs she would give whenever we came home, soft and sweet. So much for putting off old memories.

Neither Prim nor I say a word as we head for the closet. We take turns pulling down hangers. Prim set aside a favorite blouse that she wants to keep, but otherwise, most of it goes into the donation pile. At the back of the closet we find mom’s dresses from when she was young, from designers like Halston, and Diane Von Furstenberg. They are considered vintage now. We leave those hanging for us to go through later with my daughter Holly.

The few pairs of shoes at the bottom of the closet go into their own donation pile. On the shelf above the hanging rod are a couple of boxes, keepsakes probably. We each grab a box to see what’s inside.

We sit down on the bed and before I get a chance to open mine, Prim gasps. She has her box open and one by one she pulls out a collection of small trinkets. Things we had given mom and dad over the years when we were kids, a macaroni necklace strung together with yarn, a lumpy clay statue that Prim swears is a true likeness of our old cat Buttercup, and a world’s best daddy keychain, among others.

“I have no idea why she kept this stuff,” Prim says as she wipes a tear from her eyes and sets the box aside. “What’s in yours?”

I lift the lid and I find a small stack of old letters tied together with a ribbon. “Looks like mom and dad’s old love letters.” I hand them off to Prim while I see what else is in the box.

“Ah, Katniss,” Prim says, and I look up. She’s got the ribbon untied and she’s leafing through the letters. “These are all addressed to you.”

“What?”

“Look.” She turns the one in her hand around and I see my name, well my maiden name there in a familiar scrawl that I haven’t seen in ages.

I grab it out of her hand and look at the return address, although I already know who it’s from, my childhood best friend.

We met when we were five and became fast friends soon after. His mom made him work at his father’s shop after school, so I would hang out there to keep him company. We did everything together. We even went to prom together. We were never really a couple, but everyone said we belonged together.

I was headed off to college, but he stayed behind. He said if he was going to inherit the family business, he might as well start working there full time.

“Right before I left for college, he asked me to be his girlfriend,” I confess, tracing the letters on the envelope. “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship if things didn’t work out. I told him I’d send him a letter with my answer.“

Silence falls between us.

“After I got to school, I missed seeing him every day. I decided that, yes, I did want to be his girlfriend, even if it was long distance. So, I wrote him a letter and included it with my letter back home to mom. I asked her to give it to him. I thought he never wrote back to me.”

“Did you try to call him?” Prim asks.

“Phone calls were expensive back then. You paid by the minute for long distance, remember?”

“Yeah, no cell phones like today.”

“Right. I asked mom in my next letter, but she replied she hadn’t heard from him. I even went to his father’s shop when I came home for winter break, but his mom told me he didn’t want to have anything to do with me. She never liked me much, so I didn’t expect much sympathy from her. She told me he had enlisted in the service. So, I gave up on him. I went back to college that January and made new friends.”

“I’m sorry, Katniss,” Prim says, rubbing my back as she hands me a tissue. I didn’t even realize I was crying. “I’m sure mom had her reasons for keeping these from you.”

We hear a commotion from the living room, and we both realize that our families are here. Prim gets up to go greet them as I frantically dab the tissue under my eyes. I clear my throat. “Give me a minute?”

“Sure thing,” she says as she hands me the pile of letters and pats me on the leg on her way out the door.

I know I need to get up, but I’m stuck in my spot on the bed, leafing through the letters, wondering why my mother would keep these from me.

A knock on the doorframe breaks me from my misery.

“Hey sweetheart.” My dear, sweet husband comes in and wraps his arms around me. He doesn’t ask me what’s wrong, he just lets me grieve. I’m a blubbering mess, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

I realize he probably thinks this is all about losing my mom, and truthfully, part of it probably is, but I have to tell him the truth. So, I take his hand and I tell him all about the letters we found and why they are upsetting to me. 

After I’m done, he brushes my hair off my shoulder and asks, “Are you upset you never got the chance to see how things would have worked out with him?”

“No, I have a family, and I’m happy.” I try unsuccessfully to smile.

“Are you sure?”

“The more I think about it, the more I think mom knew things wouldn’t have worked out with him. She was trying to save me the heartbreak, but by doing so, I lost my best friend.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“Don’t be. If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have you. I think my mom knew this was going to happen anyway, you and me.”

“So, you forgive her,” he asks.

“I do,” I tell him, with a watery smile.

“You ready to go out there?”

“Just a couple more minutes. Would you save me some pizza? I’ll be right out.”

“Take all the time you need.” He gives me a kiss on the forehead and walks back out of the room.

I pick up my phone and go online to a popular social media app to look up my old best friend. With a name as unique as his, it’s surprisingly easy to find him. I think for a moment before typing out a note.

Dear Gale,

It’s been years since we last spoke, but I wanted to let you know I never forgot you. If you haven’t heard, my mom recently passed, and I found your old letters among her things.

I just wanted to let you know that I hope you are happy. I’m happily married now with two great kids.

Your old friend,

Katniss Everdeen - Mellark


End file.
